AFA Autumn 2019

Antiques & Fine Art 85 2019 had encouraged her son’s artistic talents, and the one to whom he had written hundreds of letters documenting the triumphs and failures of his life and career. At her death, he recommitted himself to personal painting, and in the ensuing two decades he e xplored t heme s of memor y, f ami ly, a nd de at h. He experimented with the visual innovations of modernism, fractured and dreamlike imagery, vivid palettes, and imagined perspectives (Fig. 10). In his late fifties, Wyeth turned to a new medium—tempera on panel—to create powerful images rooted in his Chadds Ford and Port Clyde experiences. He had arrived at a successful combination of the two main (and seemingly opposing) veins of his art. In paintings that essentially illustrated his own personal narrative, he suggested complex, multilayered stories that explored the timeless themes of man’s place in the natural world, remembrance, and mortality (Figs. 11, 12). All this is masterfully translated through design, color, and an obvious love of craft. When Wyeth died suddenly in 1945, the news stunned his family as well as the world at large. His hope to be recognized among the highest echelon of American painters was not fully realized in his lifetime. The arbitrary distinctions that he felt segmented his career, however, have shifted and perhaps no longer seem valid. Wyeth’s oeuvre contains a range and diversity that endlessly delights, instructs, and inspires audiences of all ages.  Fig. 10: N. C. Wyeth (1882–1945), Ridge Church, 1936. Oil on canvas, 36 x 40⅛ inches. Collection of Linda L. Bean.